Saudis Boast about Hajj while Covering up their Crimes in Yemen

The BBC reported on 25th August that a senior UN official has condemned another deadly Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen, which has killed at least 22 children and four women.

The victims were fleeing fighting in the al-Durayhimi district, south of the port city of Hudaydah, when their vehicle was hit on Thursday.

A separate air strike the same day killed four children, according to the UN’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock.

It comes just weeks after a strike on a bus killed over 40 children.

The Saudi-led coalition, which is backing Yemen’s government in a war with the Houthi rebels, has yet to comment on the latest deaths.

On the same day, the BBC reported that the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen has failed to properly investigate war crimes allegations there, Human Rights Watch says.

“The investigators were doing little more than covering up war crimes,” HRW’s Sarah Leah Whitson said.

She said the work of the alliance’s own investigators – known as the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) – had “fallen far short of international standards “and “lacked credibility”.

It said the vast majority of JIAT’s conclusions found the coalition had either acted lawfully, was not responsible for the attack, or had made an “unintentional” mistake.

The HRW Middle East director, also warned governments providing arms to Saudi Arabia that these “sham investigations” do not protect them from being complicit in violations in Yemen.

The coalition against the rebels receives logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France.

The deadly school bus attack led some members of Congress to question America’s role in the Yemen conflict, after CNN reported that the bomb used was supplied by the US.

Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has defended UK ties with Saudi Arabia, which he described as a “very, very important military ally”.

Comment:

Immediately after the hajj this year, the Saudi government statistics authority released info-graphics boasting how “the kingdom embraces the world.” They and their supporters are very proud of how many workers supported the 2.4 million hujjaj (pilgrims), and from how many regions they travelled from. However, there is no mention of 22 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance, the one million affected by deadly cholera, the 55,000 injured nor the 10,000 killed.

Such shameful statistics are denied or covered up, so as not to expose their pivotal role in the American colonial campaign against Yemen.

This is the meaning of the Saudi government liberalisation so proudly announced by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Sultan (MBS). The Saudi subservience to US interests was clear when MBS was humiliated on live TV by US President Trump, who treats him as no more than a desperate and needy client.

Furthermore, Muslims should not expect anything more than empty condemnations from the UN and other Western backed international organisations. Although they expose some of the crimes of client regimes like the Saudi government, they legitimise many more crimes through their resolutions and selective interventions. Other Muslim armies are fearful of intervening in the side of justice to protect the civilians for fear of acting illegitimately, according to the UN, which itself refuses to legitimise any military action which goes against the interests of the Western colonial masters.

The colonial agencies all work together to deceive the people of the world and continue the oppressive colonial policies which benefit only the Western Powers, at the expense of the Muslims, the world over.

Yet Allah already gave permission for the Muslims to come together to stand up to the tyrants and oppressors.

“And if two factions among the believers should fight, then make settlement between the two. But if one of them oppresses the other, then fight against the one that oppresses until it returns to the ordinance of Allah. And if it returns, then make settlement between them in justice and act justly. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly.”

So the question is: for how much longer will the Muslim Ummah remain divided idly watching atrocity after atrocity, shaking our heads at the empty condemnations of the UN, while paralysed by our borders and national flags, unable to help the innocent victims of Western colonial aggression?